Senior Category Manager – Corporate Services Category
Your Consultant
Background
We are a £2BN global defence and security company delivering mission-critical solutions that protect lives and enable operational advantage. Our vision is “to be the chosen partner around the world innovating for our customers’ advantage”. To do this, we combine deep technical expertise with a bold approach to innovation – helping our customers solve complex challenges across land, sea, air, space and cyber. We employ circa 8,000 people in 50 locations across the UK, Europe, US and Australia.
About Procurement and Supply Chain
Finance is a Global Group Function with Procurement and Supply Chain, a key department, reporting directly to the Chief Financial Officer and influencing £1BN spend across directs and indirects. The Procurement and Supply Chain department has several key pillars including Business Partnering, Category Management, Supply Chain, Responsible Procurement and Operational Excellence.
To deliver QinetiQ’s five-year growth strategy, we need to foster and enable a progressive mindset. We aspire to be a key business enabler and a value creator. To do this we need to shape and influence stakeholder strategies, drive value, deliver excellence and manage supply chain opportunities and risk.
Corporate Services
The Corporate Services Category has a spend of £100m across key categories including HR, Recruitment and Training, Professional Services, Legal, Marketing and Communications, Freight, Fleet and Travel. This role directly supports People which is a key Global Group Function.
Key Responsibilities
- Build and maintain strategic relationships with senior stakeholders, driving early engagement to influence business planning and ensure alignment with organisational priorities
- Own, develop and execute category strategies for HR, Recruitment and Training, using market insights and data to challenge existing approaches and maximize value
- Lead complex sourcing activity, including the design of sourcing strategies, competitive tenders, and negotiation of high-value contracts
- Identify and manage category-specific risks, including supply resilience, geopolitical, financial and sustainability considerations
- Support stakeholders to drive Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) across key contracts to ensure performance, innovation and value realisation from strategic partnerships
- Support the Finance and Business Systems transformation, including transition from SAP Ariba to Oracle Fusion and establishment of a mature Source-to-Pay model
Key Person Attributes
- Communicates complex commercial and strategic concepts clearly and confidently adapting style to suit senior stakeholders
- Aligns diverse stakeholders behind shared objectives
- Confident decision-maker, balancing commercial, operational and risk considerations to drive the best outcomes in ambiguous or dynamic environments and collaborates x-functionally to achieve this
- Builds collaborative and trusted relationships with stakeholders and suppliers
- Demonstrates resilience and adaptability during transformation
- Role-models integrity, accountability and a growth mindset
- Proactively improves processes, challenges existing ways of working and contributes to Supply Chain and Procurement functional development
Competencies & Proficiency Levels
Experience and Qualifications
- Degree or equivalent professional experience
- MCIPS qualified or working towards completion
- Minimum five years’ strategic category management experience in similar categories of spend
- Proven track record of building successful relationships with senior stakeholders
- Demonstrable experience negotiating high-value contracts
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- Practical experience with Source to Pay (S2P) technology
Talent Drive are committed to promoting Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace. We review all applicants on equal merit and we do not discriminate on the basis of age, gender, sex, relationship status, disability, race, religion/beliefs, or sexual orientation.